128 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



life. He taught him to live in towns, to build houses, to make hooks, to learn ajl 

 things that would make him happy and prosperous in the way of life appointed him. 

 To the red man the Great Spirit gave a different character. He gave him a love of 

 the woods, of a free life, of hunting and fishing,'of making war with his eneinies 3 and 

 taking scalps. The white man does not live like the Indian ; it is not his nature; 

 neither does the Indian love to live like the white man. The Great Spirit did not 

 make him so. 



Father, wo do not wish to do anything contrary to the will of the Great Si>irit. If 

 he had made us with white skins and characters like the white men, then we would 

 send our children to this school to bo taught like the white children. 



We think that if the Great Spirit had wished us to be like the whites he would 

 have made us so ; as he has not seen lit to do so, we believe he would be displeased 

 with us to try and make ourselves different from what he thought good. I have 

 nothing more to say. This is what we think. If we change our minds wo will let 

 you know. — Ibid., pp. 119, 120. 



In the winter of 1832-'33 food was scarce at Fort Winnebago, and the 

 Indians suffered severely. Mrs. Kinzie writes of this: 



The noble old Dey-kau-ray came one day from the Barribault to apprise us of the 

 state of his village. More than forty of his people, he said, had now been for many 

 days without food, save bark and roots. My husband accompanied him to the com- 

 manding officer to tell his story, and ascertain if any amount of food could be obtained 

 from that quarter. The result was the promise of a small allowance of flour, sufficient 

 to alleviate the cravings of his own family. 



When this was explained to the chief he turned away. 



"No," he said, " if his people could not be relieved, he and his family would starve 

 with them," and he refused for those nearest and dearest to him the proffered succor 

 until all could share alike.—" Wau-Bun," p. 484. 



Decorie died in 1834, and was buried near Fort Winnebago. 



207. Wah-chee-hahs-ka, the Man who puts all out of Doors, called the "Boxer"; 



the largest man of the Winnebagoes ; war-club in his hand, and rattle-snake 

 skins on his arms. Painted in 1835. 

 Wah-chee-hahs-ka is a distinguished man of the Winnebago tribe. He died of the 

 small-pox the next summer after this portrait was painted. Whilst the small-pox 

 Avas raging so bad at the Prairie, he took the disease, and in a rage plunged into the 

 river, and swam across to the island, where he dragged his body out upon the beach, 

 and there he died, and his bones were picked by dogs, without any friend to give him 

 burial. 



.(Plate No. 255, page 146, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years, viz, in 1836.) 



208. Won-de-tdw-a, the Wonder. Painted in 1835. 



(No plate.) 



209. Ndw-kaw, Wood; formerly the head chief, with his war-club on his arm. 



Dead. Painted in 1836. 



(Plate No. 254, page 146, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 

 In xdate 254, No. 209, will be seen the portrait of an old chief, who died a few years 

 since, and who was for many years the head chief of the tribe, by the name of Naw- 

 kaw (wood). This man has been much distinguished in his time for his eloquence, 

 and he desired me to paint him in the attitude of an orator, addressing his people. 

 — G. C, 1838. 



From Fort Winnebago : 



There were Naw-kaw, or Kar-ray-inau-nee, " the Walking Rain," now principal chief 

 of the nation (Winnebagoes), a stalwart Indian with a broad, pleasant countenauce, 



